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Pope at January 1 Mass: Mary, Mother of God, Mother for all

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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis welcomed the new year Wednesday with a solemn morning
mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, calling the faithful to look to Mary as a Mother to
all and messenger of hope.

In his homily for this, the Solemnity of the Mother
of God, Pope Francis said “there is no more meaningful time than the beginning of
a new year” to hear God’s blessing “The Lord bless you and keep you…. The Lord lift
up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

These "words of strength,
courage and hope" "will accompany our journey through the year opening up before us,”
the Pope said.

But, the Pope warned, this is not “an illusory hope based on
human frail promises, or a naïve hope which presumes that the future will be better
simply because it is the future.” Rather, he reminded the faithful, it is a hope
based on God’s blessing, containing the “greatest message of good wishes there can
be and this is the message which the Church brings to each of us.”

The message
of hope in God’s blessing, the Pope stressed, “was fully realized in a woman, Mary,
who was destined to become the Mother of God.”

“Mother of God is the first
and most important title of Our Lady,” Pope Francis said, noting that in their devotion
to her from early times, the faithful had understood this “from the beginning.”

Pope
Francis recalled the ancient Council of Ephesus which “authoritatively defined” the
divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary and later “the first Marian shrine in Rome and
the entire West” which was erected in devotion to her in the Basilica of Saint
Mary Major.

Mary is our Mother too, the Pope reminded us, “ever since Jesus,
dying on the Cross, gave her to us as our Mother, saying ‘Behold your Mother!’”

Through
the most difficult and trying times, Mary’s “sorrowing heart was enlarged to make
room for all men and women, whether good or bad,” the Pope said, and she communicates
“her maternal affection to each and every person… a source of hope and true joy.”

Inviting
the faithful to entrust to her “the journey of faith, the desires of our heart, our
needs and the needs of the whole world, especially of those who hunger and thirst
for justice and peace," Pope Francis said by Mary’s “example of humility and openness
to God’s will she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel
to all, without reservation.” And turning towards the statue of Our Lady near the
high altar, Pope Francis invoked her three times, repeating forcefully: “Holy Mother
of God!”

Listen to the report by Tracey McClure...

Below we publish the official English translation of Pope Francis’
Homily:

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God1 January 2014

In
the first reading we find the ancient prayer of blessing which God gave to Moses to
hand on to Aaron and his sons: “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his
face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon
you and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26). There is no more meaningful time than the
beginning of a new year to hear these words of blessing: they will accompany our journey
through the year opening up before us. They are words of strength, courage and hope.
Not an illusory hope, based on frail human promises, or a naïve hope which presumes
that the future will be better simply because it is the future. Rather, it is a hope
that has its foundation precisely in God’s blessing, a blessing which contains the
greatest message of good wishes there can be; and this is the message which the Church
brings to each of us, filled with the Lord’s loving care and providential help.

The
message of hope contained in this blessing was fully realized in a woman, Mary, who
was destined to become the Mother of God, and it was fulfilled in her before any other
creature.

The Mother of God! This is the first and most important title of
Our Lady. It refers to a quality, a role which the faith of the Christian people,
in its tender and genuine devotion to our heavenly Mother, has understood from the
beginning.

We recall that great moment in the history of the ancient Church,
the Council of Ephesus, in which the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary was authoritatively
defined. The truth of her divine maternity found an echo in Rome where, a little
later, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major was built, the first Marian shrine in Rome
and in the entire West, in which the image of the Mother of God – the Theotokos –
is venerated under the title of Salus Populi Romani. It is said that the residents
of Ephesus used to gather at the gates of the basilica where the bishops were meeting
and shout, “Mother of God!”. The faithful, by asking them to officially define this
title of Our Lady, showed that they acknowledged her divine motherhood. Theirs was
the spontaneous and sincere reaction of children who know their Mother well, for they
love her with immense tenderness.

Mary has always been present in the hearts,
the piety and above all the pilgrimage of faith of the Christian people. “The Church
journeys through time… and on this journey she proceeds along the path already trodden
by the Virgin Mary” (Redemptoris Mater, 2). Our journey of faith is the same as that
of Mary, and so we feel that she is particularly close to us. As far as faith, the
hinge of the Christian life, is concerned, the Mother of God shared our condition.
She had to take the same path as ourselves, a path which is sometimes difficult and
obscure. She had to advance in the “pilgrimage of faith” (Lumen Gentium, 58).

Our
pilgrimage of faith has been inseparably linked to Mary ever since Jesus, dying on
the Cross, gave her to us as our Mother, saying: “Behold your Mother!” (Jn 19:27).
These words serve as a testament, bequeathing to the world a Mother. From that moment
on, the Mother of God also became our Mother! When the faith of the disciples was
most tested by difficulties and uncertainties, Jesus entrusted them to Mary, who was
the first to believe, and whose faith would never fail. The “woman” became our Mother
when she lost her divine Son. Her sorrowing heart was enlarged to make room for all
men and women, whether good or bad, and she loves them as she loved Jesus. The woman
who at the wedding at Cana in Galilee gave her faith-filled cooperation so that the
wonders of God could be displayed in the world, at Calvary kept alive the flame of
faith in the resurrection of her Son, and she communicates this with maternal affection
to each and every person. Mary becomes in this way a source of hope and true joy!

The
Mother of the Redeemer goes before us and continually strengthens us in faith, in
our vocation and in our mission. By her example of humility and openness to God’s
will she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to
all, without reservation. In this way our mission will be fruitful, because it is
modeled on the motherhood of Mary. To her let us entrust our journey of faith, the
desires of our heart, our needs and the needs of the whole world, especially of those
who hunger and thirst for justice and peace. Let us then together invoke her: Holy
Mother of God!